


Almost Honest

by marveltookmywallet



Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/656968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marveltookmywallet/pseuds/marveltookmywallet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone always talks about Tony being the one to cheat, but what if it was Steve who cheated?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Honest

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not done with Starts with an Earthquake, this has nothing to do with that series, this is just a plot bunny that decided to take over when I sat down at my laptop tonight!
> 
> Team wise this is the Avengers Assemble team, if you aren't reading that series you need to be because it's aces, and they mention blue bell ice cream which is superior to all other brands...

            Tony sat in his lab typing up code for his newest A.I. one that he had jokingly decided to name P.E.P.P.E.R. after the wonderful Pepper Potts. Steve was supposed to back from Chicago in two hours and then he and Tony would go out and have a one year-anniversary dinner at the nicest place Tony’s money could rent for the night.

            Tony had it all perfectly planned out, Steve would come home, shower get dressed then he and Tony would ride in one of Tony’s many cars to Steve’s favorite fancy Italian restaurant which had been bought out for the night, then they would have a perfect dinner where Tony would propose using a hand crafted engagement ring and then go dancing to the jazz music Steve loved so much, and then end the night with the best sex Tony would ever have. Tony couldn’t have been more excited.

“JARVIS call the restaurant and make sure everything is in order for tonight, it has to be perfect.” Tony said as he rubbed his fingers over the little black velvet box in his pocket. He smiled to himself; tonight was going to be the best night of his life.

“ _Yes sir, and may I advise you to go change for tonight.”_ JARVIS replied.

            Tony glanced at the clock and saw that it was time to go get ready which meant a shower because he was pretty sure he smelt like the engine of a car. Tony closed out the code he was working on and left the lab, bounding up the stairs two at a time.

            Once in his and Steve’s shared room he saw that Steve was back already from the bags sitting on the bed. He looked in the bathroom but didn’t see Steve, so he shrugged his shoulders and started undressing careful to move the engagement ring over to his other pants so Steve wouldn’t see and get suspicious, he wanted this to be a surprise, a nice romantic surprise. Tony showered quickly then dressed himself in the tux that he knew that Steve loved.

            When Tony got out of the bathroom he found Steve standing by the bed already dressed and ready to go. Tony smiled at him and rushed over throwing his arms around Steve’s neck and kissing him hello.

“Missed me?” Steve chuckled, “Always,” Tony returned then grabbed Steve’s hand and led him down to the cars never letting go of his hand, happy to feel Steve’s warm skin after a few weeks apart. Tony hated when Steve went on solo missions, but he had hacked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. database and knew that it was a mostly sitting around mission, so nothing to worry about plus he had a partner.

            The pair got into one of Tony’s less ostentatious cars with Tony driving and Steve in the passenger’s seat then began the trip to the restaurant. Tony kept one hand resting on Steve’s thigh the entire trip, but Steve kept his hands together in his lap and stared out the window with a strange expression. Tony shrugged it off assuming it was just Steve being tired from his long mission. Nothing could bring him down tonight, and he couldn’t stop grinning.

            At the restaurant a valet took the keys to Tony’s car and Tony escorted Steve into the restaurant to the most romantic seats in the house, he even pulled Steve’s chair out for him. Tony went to his seat and smiled shyly at Steve and Steve smiled back. A waiter brought out two plates of lobster ravioli and set them down in front of the couple.

“So how was your trip?” Tony asked stuffing a whole ravioli into his mouth he closed his eyes in bliss and moaned then winked at Steve.

“Classified.” Steve said and cut a ravioli in half and carefully chewed avoiding eye contact. Tony didn’t seem to notice so he started to talk about his week and how the board was being annoying again but Pepper, the saint, was dealing with them, and how his new A.I. was named after her and how he and Carol hung out and gossiped about the rest of the team like the relationship of one Hawkeye and Spider-Woman. Tony talked and talked and Steve sat vacant, nodding at the right times but not giving any input.   

            The waiter came back and cleared the empty plates and set down desserts before leaving the two alone once again with soft jazz music playing over the speakers. This was it, Tony thought, he was going to do it. He took a deep breath to steady himself then stood up and walked in front of Steve; Tony pulled out the black box and got down on one knee.

“Steve, you make me a better man, I’m not half as good at anything as I am when I’m doing it next to you. Will you do me the honor of becoming my lawfully wedded husband?” Tony asked with shaky fingers pulling out a silver band with a blue diamond in between two reds. Tony looked up to Steve’s face and instead of seeing an ecstatic expression he saw an angry one.  

“Tony get up, we need to talk.” There it was, the dreaded, “talk” Tony had heard it enough times to know where it lead and it didn’t lead anywhere good for dear old Tony. Tony stood up and sat back in his chair still holding the ring in his now clinched fists. Steve took a deep breath and looked at Tony but not in his eyes at his forehead, not in the eyes.

“While I was in Chicago I cheated on you.” Steve said bluntly, the color drained from Tony’s face and he felt his stomach drop and maybe his heart stop, he wasn’t sure.

“Oh, okay. We… We can work through this, I’ll forgive you, I forgive you, let’s move on.”

“Damn it, Tony!” Steve said pounding his fists on the table, shattering his dessert plate, Tony flinched backwards.

“I cheated on you, and you act like you don’t even care! Who does that? Do you not have enough self-worth to be angry, I fucking cheated on you!” Steve stood up knocking his chair back in the process, “I cheated on you with my partner, I cheated on you with Sharon Carter, you know my old girlfriend’s niece! I fucked someone else! React!” Tony just sat there taking the abuse “…..Fuck you.” Steve left the table and headed towards the door, “I’ll find my own way back to the tower and I’ll move out of your room before you get back,” he said without turning around.

            Tony stared at his retreating back the ring was digging into his palm, but he couldn’t feel it, all he could feel was his heart being ripped out of his chest then stomped on, and he thought it was his own damn fault. Tony could feel fat tears falling down his cheeks he wiped them away and stood and walked toward his car in a daze, he got in and started to drive. Steve’s words running on repeat in his mind the only thing interrupting them was the thought that he hadn’t been a good enough boyfriend, he hadn’t been good enough once again, if he had been better Steve wouldn’t have wanted to cheat, Tony ruined the best thing in his life, and there was no one to blame but himself.

            Tony felt like he had been driving for forever when he realized that he was leaving the city and headed away from New York. That was fine, he thought. Give everyone some time, actually, he never wanted to face Steve again, he was too afraid of the shame he felt towards Steve. The avengers! Tony thought as he drove past a part of the bridge where they had fought gigantic mutated spiders that one time. Tony made a split second decision and pulled out his phone.

“JARVIS, alert Carol and tell her I’m taking some time off from the Avengers, actually scratch that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at Steve again, and I know they will be on his side, since this whole fucking mess is my fault in the first place.” Tony sighed heavily, “Tell Carol I’m quitting the Avengers but I’ll still be financing them and that I will not be returning to the tower any time soon, but the Avengers can still live there.”

“ _Yes sir,”_ JARVIS replied but refrained from making a snarky comment, it was obvious he could sense Tony’s anguish and self-loathing. Tony pushed the gas harder and headed towards California to start over, again. Tony realized he was still holding the ring, he wanted to throw it out the window and let it be lost forever, but he couldn’t bring himself to roll it down. Instead he put the ring back in the box and put it in the glove box, out of sight but not out of mind. He knew he’d eventually have to do something with it, but he figured he could melt it down and make something new, or maybe he’d keep it as a constant reminder as to why he was alone for the rest of his life.

 

            Tony arrived in Malibu a couple of days later, he only stopped for coffee and restroom breaks, no point in sleeping when the nightmares were real. His house was so empty compared to the tower back in New York, Tony mentally berated himself for thinking about the Avengers, they wouldn’t want him anyway, and he ruined Captain America. He vaguely wondered if Carol would still wanna talk, seeing as they had been friend since before he was Iron Man. He knew that she was his only hope of still talking to him; the rest would take side Captain America.

            He would miss being an Avenger, he could always go back to being a solo hero, but he really didn’t feel like doing much of anything at the moment. He would miss Iron Man, and he would miss eating blue bell ice cream at 2 a.m. with Bruce and gossiping about celebrities with Jessica Drew, and helping Peter with science, he would even miss Logan, though not very much.

            Tony went down into the workshop and began to work on a new cell phone for SI, seeing as he was no longer an Avenger there was no point to work on the armor, he might as well be a good engineer for Pepper.

“JARVIS, play my ‘pepper is making me work’ mix.” Music started to play throughout the workshop and Tony played with designs. A loud bang crashed from up above his head and Tony jumped out of his chair to go investigate, but before he could even get out of the doors men came rushing in from all directions, men in bee-keeper uniforms, A.I.M.. They were all carrying guns with a barrel full of green liquid, Tony didn’t have time to react before one of them grabbed him and shoved a needle in his neck. Darkness surrounded him as he felt himself being lifted off the ground.

            Tony woke up strapped down to a table with a huge light shining down on him. He blinked groggily through the haze in his mind only to find searing pain all over his body. He groaned despite better judgments.

“Ah, yes. I see you are feeling our newest experiment. It’s like liquid pain through your veins, yes? I’ll make sure to tell the scientists who developed it that it works.” The bee-keeper speaking stood in front of Tony but he couldn’t see the face just the ugly yellow mask.

“MODOK wants you to build him a plethora of weapons. Of course you’ll comply because we. Can. Hurt. You.” The bee-keeper said and with each word Tony felt the burning in his veins increasing until all he could see was white from the pain, then it all stopped.

“So what do you say?” Tony used what little strength he had left to spit in the bee-keepers face.

“More fun for me then!” The bee-keeper said then he grabbed a rather large looking taser and clicked it on. He put it on Tony’s stomach and Tony spazmed howling in pain as the liquid pain once again started pouring through his veins. It took approximately five minutes for him to black out.

            Tony woke up inside a small cell on the ground, there wasn’t even a bed, he had no pillows or blankets and there was a bucket in a corner that one would assume was the toilet. Tony vaguely wished he was still an Avenger so that he at least knew someone knew he was missing and would maybe go looking for him. Though after everything with Steve, he figured no one would even want to go looking for him, well Carol would.

            Tony curled up around himself inspecting the burns on his stomach from the taser, angry red whelps stared back at him. Tony sighed and went over his options. He could do like he did in Afghanistan and say he was going to build a weapon for them but build one for himself, but that wouldn’t work, A.I.M. was smart and they would figure that out and stop him. He could try to fight his way out, but that wouldn’t work seeing as he was just a normal human being without the suit. Or he could keep stalling and hope that a house keeper had alerted authorities to a break in at his Malibu house then maybe police would find him. Looking back on his choices, he really had no other option but to hope. And it looked like time wasn’t on his side. Tony Stark was going to die by the hands of a guy in an ugly yellow haz-mat suit.  

            A few hours later or a day later, Tony couldn’t tell time in the windowless cell and his internal clock had never been very good, some more bee-keepers came to get him. Tony smirked at them.

“Nope, not gonna happen.” The bee-keepers hauled him up by his arm pits and dragged him back to the room and strapped him to the table. This time the bee-keepers punched him around a bit with what looked like a club on steroids. They pumped more of the liquid pain into his veins and Tony vaguely wondered if it would have long term effects not that it mattered since he was going to die here anyway. Tony could feel himself blacking out and he could feel a concussion so if he blacked out he probably wouldn’t wake up, he let his last thought be of Steve, and even if Steve didn’t want him anymore it was still a comforting thought of Steve holding him close and gentle in his arms where Tony had always felt safe. It was a nice thought to die to Tony thought as he closed his eyes letting the blackness take over.

            The first thing Tony heard was a steady beeping that was slightly annoying, death sucked was Tony’s next thought; he had hoped death would be silent without this damned beeping. Slowly he started to feel his arms and legs they didn’t hurt but he could feel them again, actually nothing hurt. That was nice about death, no more pain, everything felt like you’d been pumped full of morphine. It was a nice feeling.

            Tony opened his eyes into slits and all he could see was light, he wondered if it was the light at the end of the tunnel and if he’d been wrong all this time and there was a god, but there was no way he’d be admitted into heaven anyway. He doubted that was what had happened.

“Tony?” Steve! That’s Steve’s voice! Ah, death was going to be lovely if Steve was there, maybe this Steve would want him back.

“Tony, open your eyes, come on, honey I know you can do it.” Death Steve sounded worried; Tony quickly opened his eyes so as not to fuck it up with this Steve too.

            No, this wasn’t right, Tony looked around he was in a hospital bed in a S.H.I.L.D. hospital bed to be exact, no this wasn’t death and the Steve talking to him wasn’t his, at least not anymore.

“I’m not dead.” Tony said lamely. Steve pushed Tony’s hair back petting him, “no, you’re not. It’s okay Tony we found you. I’m sorry it took us so long. God, I’m sorry.” Steve said taking one of Tony’s hands in his.

“I thought I was going to die.” Steve squeezed Tony’s hand, “it’s okay, baby, you didn’t you’re here you’re safe.” Tony felt drops on his hand and he saw that Steve was crying, that didn’t make any sense, Steve didn’t want him anymore, why would he care if Tony was okay?

“You don’t want me.” Tony said both for himself and for Steve, if Steve knew that Tony understood he wouldn’t feel guilty for leaving Tony by himself.

“God, I fucked up didn’t I?” Steve said, rubbing Tony’s cheek with his thumb.

“I made a fucking horrible decision and now I have to live with it. Tony, I still love you and I will always want you, but I did something wrong. I was lonely, I wanted contact, Sharon, my partner, was there she reminded me so much of Peggy and I just didn’t think, we only did it once and I regretted it as soon as it happened. I gave into the loneliness but I didn’t give up nothing else. I wasn’t going to tell you, I was just going to try to forget it ever happened. Then at the restaurant when you pulled out that ring, I couldn’t lie to you. I couldn’t have you sit there being perfect and me fucking up.”

“I’m far from perfect.” Tony said casting his eyes to the side. Steve shushed him by putting a finger over his lips.

“Not finished, then when you just forgave me and wanted to work through it, I was angry, angry at you for not being angry at me. I wanted you to hate me as much as I hated myself in that moment, but you didn’t because even if you don’t believe it you are a good person.” Steve took a deep breath and kissed Tony’s forehead.

“You left the restaurant, you left me, I ruined our relationship.” Tony said desperately wanting to be anywhere but where he was.

“Tony, stop. It’s not your fault. The only person to blame is me. Tony, me. Not you. Me. I’m sorry. I can’t say that enough. I’m sorry that I cheated on you, I’m sorry that I acted the way I did when I told you, after I left I cooled down and realized how much of an idiot I was I went back to the tower so I could talk to you, but Carol told me you were leaving the Avengers and I knew it was my fault. Actually I told her what happened and she punched me, then told me to stop being an idiot and to go find you. I asked JARVIS and he told me you were in Malibu. When I arrived the house was trashed and JARVIS said that he had been hacked and had no memory from when you were kidnapped. I assembled the Avengers then we went about finding you. God, Tony I’m sorry.” Steve was still holding Tony’s hand and Tony took a second to appreciate the warmth.

“When we got to the A.I.M. facility and we found you, I thought you were dead, you were barely breathing and you were bleeding really badly. I thought I’d lost my chance to make things right, to take you in my arms and whisper how much I loved you and how sorry I was and that you deserve better than me, someone who wouldn’t cheat on you.”

            Tony looked at Steve and smiled softly; Steve smiled back and kissed the back of Tony’s hand.  “I forgive you, Steve. I still want to make things work if you do?” Tony asked prepared for the worst.

“It’s going to be hard, but you’re worth it. Tony, I love you. Thank you for taking my sorry ass back.” Steve said chuckling through the tears falling down his face, Tony was slightly aware of himself crying too but it didn’t matter, Steve wanted him! Steve kissed Tony’s lips and whispered I love you. It was going to take time, but eventually things would get back to normal, then they could move on with their lives. Tony wondered if Steve would have said yes to the marriage proposal under different circumstances.

“I would have, and I want to marry you Tony, but not yet. I want to prove my love to you. Then you can propose and I’ll say yes.” Oh, Tony had said that last bit out loud.

“And you said that out loud too, you should probably go to sleep, honey. You’ve had a long couple of days. Don’t worry I’m not going anywhere.” Steve gently kissed Tony’s forehead and Tony closed his eyes falling into a pleasant sleep. Things weren’t okay yet, but they would be soon. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I promise I'll work on Starts with an Earthquake soon, I just had to get this out!


End file.
